


after all this time.

by pporksodaa



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Liechtenstein cameo, M/M, Other, Prussia cameo, also polaroid nudes aren’t just for art hoes, gerameweek2018, hi Yes hullo Ludwig with long hair is the reason I live thank u, im postin this from my phone so if it’s formatted weird I’m sorry, this is for gerame week but it’s also purely self indulgent tbh, yeet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 06:50:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15813675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pporksodaa/pseuds/pporksodaa
Summary: Pictures are worth a thousand words, and endless memories. Countless emotions. Ludwig is going through their old pictures and remembers just how lovely the years of their youth had been. Reflecting on it makes him realize that things have only gotten lovelier. A little more stiff in Ludwig’s lower back and achy in Alfred’s knees, but lovely all the same.gerame week day II entry; after all this time.





	after all this time.

**Author's Note:**

> :))) hope you guys enjoy! 
> 
> Kudos and (nice) comments appreciated!!!

Ludwig grunted softly as he knelt down, settling with his legs cross as he pulled the box over. He was up in the attic; the plan this weekend was Spring cleaning. Alfred had already come through and dusted most everything, and they had brought down the more heavy, cumbersome items. Now Alfred was preparing lunch downstairs, and Ludwig was up here going through some of the boxes they had left.

This one was filled with pictures, he discovered upon pulling the top off. Stacks and stacks, bundles of memories packed together with brightly colored rubber bands. For almost 20 years they had had these pictures. 17 years they had been in this house, that he and Alfred had bought together.

He hadn’t even looked at the pictures yet, and he felt a wave of nostalgia flow through him and fill him with a feather-light giddiness.

He grabbed a bundle on the top and pulled the rubber bands off.

The very first photo was nothing that surprised him at all. It was of Alfred, still with his full-grown afro and a cropped t-shirt, spitting a mouthful of something that was probably coke. Ludwig remembered when this was taken, and it made him snort thinking about it.

Ludwig, Alfred, and Gilbert had been spending time together in the backyard of Gilbert’s new house. At the time, Ludwig and Alfred were but 19, young and spry and excited about life. Gilbert, 23, was also in a ready-to-go-right-now state of mind. But he also had a complex that made him act like he was jaded and knew everything, just because he had two stupid teenagers to babysit. Gilbert had called it that, despite being the one to invite them over.

Gilbert had intended to make Ludwig and Alfred pose for a picture. Ludwig was across the yard, investigating the beginnings of the garden Gilbert was starting. At the time, he found it quite peculiar. Gilbert had often expressed that growing flowers was the last thing he’d ever want to spend his time doing.  ‘Only pansies grow pansies’ was what he said, as Ludwig recalled it.

Ludwig hadn’t known it at the time, but things began to make sense once he’d met Gilbert’s one true love. Lili. Suddenly, being a pansy hadn’t seemed to matter much to Gilbert.

Sure, Ludwig would have liked it if Gilbert had been more supportive of _him_ growing and enjoying flowers but you know. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Anyway, once he’d realized they were waiting for him, he stood and made to quickly join them. At least he had planned on it until he heard a soft hiss at his feet. Looking down was a mistake.

The scream that followed had made all the birds scatter from the trees. All the dogs and cats in the neighborhood swiveled their ears toward the sound. A few of the neighbors physically left their houses to see if there was murder afoot.

Alfred spit his soda, and Gilbert just so happened to capture that moment in all of its glory. Then Gilbert had run over to see what the Hell Ludwig was screaming about and promptly picked up the snake, laughing hysterically  

Ludwig’s mistake, apparently, that Gilbert hadn’t decided to tell him he’d gotten a pet snake! Of all things! A _snake_! Usually, Ludwig wasn’t one to scream when he was upset, but snakes...they were one of the few things that evoked such a vivid reaction.

Gilbert, instead of comforting a shaken Ludwig, had simply crooned and coddled his dear ‘Anastasia’.

Instead, Alfred had patted Ludwig’s back. Albeit, while laughing his ass off.

Ludwig clicked his tongue, turning the photo over. There was writing there. _June 18, 1964_. The handwriting was in neat cursive, letters linked smoothly and the ‘J’ swirled elegantly. It was Ludwig’s, then. Even back then, even when things were going so fast and every thing was always changing, his handwriting was calm and gentle.

Unlike Alfred’s chicken scratch, which was on the back of the next photo. This one was from two years later, when he and Alfred had bought their first home.

They both stood together on the porch, arms tucked around one another, barefoot and covered in paint marks. The house had been cheap, but with the cheap price came the ramifications. They had gotten what they paid for, and they had paid for a vessel that would come to hold their dreams, their fears, and their triumphs. A lot to fix, but also a lot to personalize.

The walls weren’t that groovy yellow color anymore, that color that made every day feel like waking up in a sunflower. It was still beneath the other layers of paint, though, as a colorful reinforcement of their love and experiences. A paint-on time capsule.

The faint strawberry blonde of Ludwig’s hair in the summer sun was still the same, and so was the length. In the photo, it reached all the way down to his butt in subtle waves, parted to the right and tucked behind his ears at the moment. Looking at it made him more sad than he thought he should have. After all, his hair was still that long right now. He had it tied up so it wouldn’t get caught up in his face. Maybe it was the memory of a few years later. When he cut it all off that night, sitting on the floor of the bathroom. 

Thinking about _that_ was swiftly pushed away in favor of smiling at the image Alfred next to him, still sporting that afro. Ludwig remembered now, that it was more likely than not that if there was a photo of Alfred with an afro, then there were flowers or beads or something braided into it. Courtesy of Ludwig, mostly. And this picture was no exception. Roses of many colors dotted the large, dark, coiled expanse of Alfred’s hair.

How darling. They were both smiling, wide and happily. Ludwig was even showing his gums, dimples formed deep within his cheeks. Alfred’s eyes were crinkled near shut.

Ludwig gave a wistful sigh and ran his finger over Alfred’s face.

After all this time, and that smile was still the very same.

Ludwig pulled the next one forward.

It made his chest immediately ache and swell as his heart lurched, as if trying to escape his ribcage and hold this picture close. Ludwig did just that, pressing it to his lips. Where he was now, when he was, it was enough for him. But reliving the memories in the past never felt like too bad of an idea. Especially this one.

They were unable to be officially wed, back then and even now.  Never in the eyes of legality would they be husband to one another, but Alfred had proposed all the same and Ludwig had said yes without a hesitation. They had spent that night together, sitting on the floor of the porch, lit by candlelight as Alfred sat with his guitar and they played song after song. Alfred strummed all night, and Ludwig sang for him, with him, to him, about him.

At some point, Alfred had managed to snapshot him.

He could hear the exact song he had been singing when Alfred took the shot.

 _Someday I’ll wish upon a star_  
And wake up where the clouds are far  
Behind me  
Where troubles melt like lemon drops  
Away above chimney tops  
That’s where you’ll find me

The photo was so calm. So care free. There had been a breeze that night, summery and sweet, brushing its affectionate hand against wisps of his hair. The candlelight glow was subtle but generous to him, highlighting the peace he had.

Ludwig didn’t sing so much anymore. Back then, he had always been singing. There had been so much to sing _about_ when they were younger, especially during a time when so much was changing, when each day felt like _new_. These days, sometimes, things didn’t feel so nice. Things didn’t feel as comfortable as his bare feet in the lush grass if their backyard. Things didn’t feel as fun and upbeat as running from Alfred, who wielded a dripping paint brush. Things didn’t feel as simple, as spending days painting and repainting Alfred’s van.

Things felt harder sometimes. Things changed and they didn’t always change for the better.

Alfred did, though. Alfred changed but never for worse. After all this time, Alfred had changed but still made Ludwig feel like no one and nothing ever had.

Sometimes Ludwig just didn’t feel like talking at all, and Alfred was there for that as much as he had been there when Ludwig was feeling ready to shout from the top of the world.

The picture was of Ludwig, but he very clearly saw Alfred within it, too.

Ludwig felt his scalp start to tingle the way it did when he was about to cry. This was their wedding photo. The only one he needed. He didn’t need a big ceremony, or handfuls of rice, or any ordained minister’s words. Alfred was his _husband_ , and that night was all he had needed to make it so.

Only when he tried to look at another photo did he realize his eyes were filled with tears. He spent a few moments rubbing his eyes, letting that feeling sit in his gut comfortably, warming him through and through. It was the deep winter season, and the attic wasn’t exactly the most well insulated. But Ludwig felt cozy.

Once he’d calmed down, he finally looked at the next photo.

The embarrassment hit him immediately. _Jeez_. He knew instantly what this was from. This one was more of a series. The first was nice and clean, as he and Alfred jumped up into the air, celebrating another summer.

The entire day, Alfred had been crooning about how nice Ludwig’s butt looked in those tight fitting pants, claiming that the high waisted cut just ‘lifted the ham’. While flattered, Ludwig had been too hot all day and had really wondered if he had gotten a size just a bit too small.

Well, the next photo was exactly the answer. It was blurry, because as soon as he landed back down he fell over, grabbing his own behind. His pants had ripped, right through the ass and all the way to the front.

The next one showed Alfred also falling over but with laughter, holding his middle with his mouth wide open and eyes clamped shut.

Ludwig felt his face get hot, shaking his head. Ugh! For a good two months after that he hadn’t worn a single pair of jeans, no matter how loose they were. It would have been sooner but whenever Alfred saw Ludwig in jeans, he couldn’t help but snicker about it and then Ludwig remembered and took them off.

Dickhead.

He clicked his tongue and moved on to the next one. Another shock of embarrassment punched him in the gut.

“Oh, my God,” he blurted, unable to help it.

“What is it?”

Ludwig jumped, grabbing his chest. “Alfred!” He gasped, scowling over to the leering face that appeared through the attic door. “You _brat_! Don’t scare me like that. It makes my blood-”

“Pressure spike. I know! But your face is totally worth it,” Alfred chirped, climbing all the way into the attic and going over to him. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”

Ludwig panicked for a moment. “Uhh, photos,” he said.

“I can see that,” Alfred chuckled and leaned over him. “What’s this one?”

Ludwig very nearly was able to conveniently shove it away before Alfred grabbed it. He felt heat grow down his neck now and was already shaking his head.

Alfred gave a loud ‘whoop!’ He grinned down at Ludwig. “Oh, that’s what I’m talkin’ about, baby boy,” he crooned. “Our Polaroid nudies! Oh, man, I thought we had all of these in that box in the closet. But damn. Baby boy, baby _boy_. This is a wicked good one. Artful, somehow. I guess your ass is always a masterpiece, though.”

Ludwig scoffed, covering his face with his hands as Alfred leaned down to sprinkle him with affectionate kisses.

“Man, how come ya don’t let me take any more of these?” Alfred said, grinning all the while.

“Because you don’t _need_ them, perverted old man,” Ludwig muttered.

“I suppose that’s true,” Alfred said with a nod, pressing a warm kiss to Ludwig’s jaw. “A picture ain’t never as good as the real thing. And I got the real thing right here. The real, warm, soft, rad, smellin’ like candy thing.”

Ludwig snorted at him and gave him a few kisses then pulled back. “Is lunch finished?” He asked.

Alfred nodded and stood with a grunt, his knees popping loudly. “Oh, _God_...I think I’m just about finished, too. Ya may have to invest in a walker sooner than anticipated.”

Ludwig chuckled. He packed the rest of the photos back, except for one which he took with him as he followed Alfred downstairs. When he entered the kitchen, he put it on the fridge, right next to the latest photo they had taken. It was similar in composition. Ludwig and Alfred stood together in their backyard, and Alfred’s head was thrown back in a laugh because of something Ludwig had said. Alfred’s hair wasn’t in an afro anymore, unfortunately, but Ludwig liked the dreads he had it in now. There were silver and gold band cuffs around a lot of them that added marvelous pops of color, and Ludwig still tucked flowers here and there when they were out.

If you didn’t count the nearly fluorescent windbreaker Alfred was wearing in that photo, which Ludwig was wearing currently. That was certainly a pop of color  

Looking at the photos made the sound of Alfred’s laugh echo in Ludwig’s head. Except, right now, Alfred really was laughing and Ludwig smiled, turning to see just what was so funny.

The date on the back of the newest photo read _December 13, 1986._


End file.
